Gamers around the world are going to feel the pain in the 2009 holiday season after the economy shakes apart many great development studios. Electronic Arts feels the pain of being a public company as their investors complain about lackluster revenue, THQ deals with closing studios to extend their runway and other firms will lose more headcount in the coming months.
It’s not all bad. But, it’s going to get ugly before it gets better.
The financial market has played tricks on everyone in our global economy and companies across all industries are going to feel a bit of a tightening around the belt. Investors are shaken and doing their best to protect their investments and cutting loose those that aren’t projecting profits in the near future. Game studios are going to slow their financial burn rates, trim a bit of the fat and hunker down the long term. The end result, next years holiday season will have a few less games because those games are being dropped to the floor now.
Mid-sized studios within larger firms may find their projects canceled or put on hold and their employees re-structured or let go while big studios assess what projects will make the long haul. This is the ugly side of the business, having to make a decision on what games stay and what games go with the grief of having to tell some of your best talent “goodbye.”
The bad part of the industry is occurring today, with publishers posting mediocre profits and trying to convince their investors to be patient and trust they’ve got a firm hold on their destiny. The game industry is not alone in this, many firms are reducing head count and many startups are finding themselves without series A or B funding; they’re closing their doors because the money is being directed to more stable ventures.
What’s the good in all of this?
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Hi guys.
Thanks for the episode. I did not find the time to listen to your show on a regular basis the last months, i am very sorry for that 🙁
I moved to a new city, started a new job and all of that took a lot of time and energy.
I hope i can listen to it more often in the future .. one of you guys is reminding me all the time, everytime there is a new episode .. so i will not miss any 😉
Regarding this episode:
I did not play much, nearly nothing to be honest. I think the only thing i played was 1 or 2 hours of Diablo 4 with a friend because of the new season. I did not find any time for playing Magic the Gathering, which is an indicator for my non-existing free time 🙂
– I was never into CoD and never played any of these, so i don´t really care about releases on whatever platform 🙂
– GTA6 release: i really think its funny and in addition fascinating, that a game has such an impact, that other developers plan aroud the release of such a big title, so that they dont fall apart. I never played any GTA but some of my friends do. I bought GTA 5 some months ago and tried to play it … but as mentioned above: my free time is very limited for activities at the moment 🙁
– Helldivers 2: I heard a lot about it, how much fun it is if you play it with friends and how many hours my friends spend playing it. I think i have to look out for it when i will find some time 🙂
That´s all i can say, because all other topics i never heard of or can´t say anything to it.
Please keep up the good work and stay healthy!
Greetings from germany,
Ralf